Banquet of Chestnuts

The Banquet of Chestnuts was a fete in Rome held in the Papal Palace by former Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, on 30 October 1501. The Pope held the banquet at the behest of his mistress, Giulia Farnese, who devised the idea as a way to ensure the loyalty of the College of Cardinals to him; all of the cardinals in attendance were named in the chronicle written by Johann Burchard, which meant that they could be blackmailed, if needed. There were fifty prostitutes at the event, and they entertained the guests as they ate dinner. After dinner, Farnese threw chestnuts around, and the prostitutes would be rewarded if they could pick up the nuts using their "nether parts", as Burchard worded it. The debaucheries of the cardinals were chronicled by Burchard, who was hidden behind a screen, and the cardinals were forced to obey the Pope, lest their actions become widely known.